PROVO, Utah – The No. 45 University of New Mexico men’s tennis team claimed a solid 4-0 victory over regional opponent BYU on Saturday afternoon to improve to 12-8 on the season. It was an impressive rebound victory for the Lobos who fell to Utah last night in a tight match up in Salt Lake City.
“Great bounce back effort,” interim head coach Bart Scott said. “Coming to Utah for Utah and BYU is a tough ask and our guys really rose to the occasion this morning after the tough loss late last night.”
UNM clinched the doubles point after tallying wins in the No. 2 and No. 3 positions. Senior James Hignett and freshman Augustus Ge, who also tallied a doubles victory for the Lobos yesterday, posted a perfect 6-0 win over BYU’s David Ball and Jacob Sullivan in the No. 2 position. Mitchell McDaniels and Samir Iftikhar defeated Aidan Carrazedo and Jeremy Bourgeois in the No. 3 spot.
No. 67 ranked doubles pair Hayden Sabatka and Bart Van Leijsen were down 3-4 in the No. 1 spot to Francis Sargeant and Andrey Goryachkov when the point was claimed.
The Lobos dominated singles action picking up two-set wins in the No. 2, No. 4, and No, 5 positions to claim the match. Hignett got the Lobos started with a swift 6-0, 6-2 win over Ball; Sabatka defeated Shane Monroe 6-4, 6-4; Van Leijsen clinched the win with his 6-2, 7-6 win over Bourgeois.
“To come out here and do what we did was impressive,” Scott said. “We have a lot of respect for BYU and our rivalry and our guys honored that in the best way possible for Lobo Nation by coming out and being clinical.”
Iftikhar led Sargeant 6-0, 1-6, 4-2 when their match was called; McDaniels claimed the first set over Goryachkov 6-2 and was down 4-5 in the second; Jorge Escutia dropped his first set to Juan Canales 1-6, but claimed the second 7-5 and was up 1-0 in the third.
UNM dives into conference play for their next match as they host Fresno State on March 27 at the McKinnon Family Tennis Stadium.
“We have a few days off now to rest, recover, and recharge for the home stretch in our very tough and competitive league,” Scott added.
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